The year is 2094.
I am 115 years old.
I’m about to permanently move to Gertabon, the lower orbit community some 130 miles above the surface of the earth.
Gertabon is the trailer park of Earth’s orbiting space community (OSC). It’s all I can afford.
My two children have made frequent visits to OSC since they graduated from college. Mark works on a dolphin farm in Phoenix. Sara works at a funeral parlor in Tennessee. They’ve both been encouraging me for years to make a permanent move into orbit. After our house burned down last summer, I decided to take the plunge.
Tonight is my last night on Earth.
I feel like I’m saying goodbye to an old friend. The dirt, the clouds, the gravity… all things I took for granted during my life. I guess I never really thought about the earth as part of my life… it was just always there.
I remember a sunset at Sardis Lake with three friends. Staring at that magnificent display of clouds and light, no one said a word. The night cooled and we pointed the boat back to shore. Brackish water sprayed over the bow as we bounced on the waves.
Rain. I’m pretty sure I’ll miss the rain. I’ve always found something inspiring about watching rain spatter against a window. Nature, washing itself.
I loved to play in the dirt as a kid. Mom and Dad were constantly finding freshly-dug holes in the front yard.
Why didn’t I ever stop to appreciate trees? What a strange thing trees are. Always reaching upward, stretching to the sky. Year after year after year of reaching and stretching.
As I gaze over my packed bags, I search around for a small cup. I shuffle outside into the cool night and scoop up some dry dirt. I dump it into the cup and cover it with a lid.
Before I head to bed, I find a pen and scrawl onto the cup, “my most constant friend.”
Tomorrow starts a new life. I’ll age much more slowly at Gertabon. I’ll be able to see the earth from an entirely different vantage point. From hundreds of miles above, I’ll be watching a world I’ve been a part of all my life. Like a fan in the stands of a football game. Like every fan, watching, cheering, and longing to be a part of the game.
I’d stay if I could. But the law says I have to move to OSC before I’m 120.
I crawl out of bed, unzip my largest bag, and put the cup inside.
© October 17, 2006
